Renewable Resources - Is Solar Energy Too Expensive?

Updated on October 24, 2010

Solar Power House

We live in a world that
is energy hungry. It will continue to grow more hungry as our main
energy sources are depleted. There are global crude oil shortages
and we can't expect to continually find new pockets of oil as the
natural process that results in crude oil takes about 150 million
years.

Can we wait that long?

Suppliers of these
resources are continuously looking for new ways to provide our high
energy needs more efficiently than ever before.

As our conventional
energy sources continue to deplete or pollute the atmosphere we are
becoming increasingly aware and more actively geared towards finding renewable resources. As is often the way, people only change when disaster
strikes or they are directly affected by something. Governments and
local authorities are paying close attention to the idea of energy
conservation. New houses are being built with energy conservation in
mind – less heat loss being a major build factor. In the case of
energy consumption the average household is paying more and more each
month for gas and electricity than ever before. This has changed how
we think on a daily basis. Whether it be in the form of recycling,
buying energy efficient appliances or turning the heating down in
your home by one degree we have all become energy conscious.

One of the leading
innovations in the last century in the field of alternative energy is
solar voltaics, but the concept of harnessing the suns energy in this
way actually dates back to a French Physicist named Antoine-César
Becquerel. Antoine first discovered the concept, but it wasn't until
some 50 years later that the first ever solar cell was successfully
developed. Even then it was less than 1% efficient. But the wheels
where in motion. Today we have solar panels that can be upwards of
20% efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. If this
doesn't sound like much at this rate of conversion we can still power
upwards of 70% of our daily usage. We are, however, on the brink of
solar panels reaching 80% efficiency and they will also much cheaper
to manufacture.

This means they will be
cheaper for the average home owner to buy as the materials used are
easier to make than highly purified silicon in current construction
methods. Today, though, it is possible for us to install a solar
panel array on the roof of our house (preferably south facing) to
collect the suns rays all day long. In some countries it is possible
to achieve over two thirds of the average homes daily energy needs.
In Europe, however, we have less sunlight, but this shouldn't be a
deterring factor. Some people are led to believe that it is sunlight
that we need – something lacking in certain countries such as the
United Kingdom. However, we can still collect ample amounts of
energy from daylight. After all, daylight is just sunlight that is
slightly obscured by clouds.

If you are thinking
about trying to cut the cost of your energy bill and like the idea of
solar panels, but don't like the big price tag then think about
this:-

grants
are available in the U.K. The initiative is called the Low Carbon
Buildings Programme and you can get a grant for solar panels up to a
maximum of £3,000 per kilowatt and a maximum of £15,000. The
total grant available can be up to half the cost of your
installation, however your home has to currently conform to a
certain building criteria – using low energy light bulbs, roof and
cavity wall insulation.

Your
solar installation may cost the price of a second hand car, but it
will outlive your car by twenty years or more. And, unlike a car,
they don't need constant maintenance.

You
can make some passive income by selling any excess electricity back
to the national grid. In effect, your electricity meter can
potentially run backwards while you are at work or on holiday.

No
need for planning permission.

The
monetary rewards are becoming clearer with the rising cost of our
utility bills. There was a time when this was a venture for those
who had money to spare. They probably cared, more than most, about
the environment and were looking to set an example for others to
follow. This is changing, however, as the monetary benefits are
becoming clearer with the ever rising costs of our utility bills. The
gap is being closed at an exponential rate in the amount of time in
years it can take to recoup ones initial installation costs. In as
little as 5-10 years a solar installation will have paid for itself
and will continue to pay for itself for many decades to come. So if
you think about the energy sources you currently use can you say that
there is such a thing as a payback period? If you are reliant on the
national grid, coal or any other conventional energy source then
perhaps it's time to rethink what you are spending on a monthly basis
with no hope of a return investment. And so it can be misleading to
think of solar energy as too expensive. It is currently one of the
only ways you can save money and help the environment continuously
for decades to come.

Can we say that about the second hand car we bought 5 years
ago?

Solar products

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